La Strada (1954)

Dino De Laurentiis began his long career in the 1950s, helping spearhead Italian cinema's neorealist movement. La Strada, by Federico Fellini, is a vibrant tale of human flotsam that starred Giuletta Masina as the soulful innocent who is sold to Gypsies. It went on to inspire a flop Broadway musical and prompt the young Bob Dylan to write Mr Tambourine Man.

Barbarella (1968)

The producer saw out the 1960s with Barbarella, a gaudy adult comic-strip of a movie in which Jane Fonda's sci-fi vamp saves the world, seduces an angel and out-sexes a sex machine. The film bombed on first release, only to be lovingly embraced as a cult classic.

Serpico (1973)

Sidney Lumet's hard-scrabble cop classic cast Al Pacino as the true-life detective who ventures off the map in his bid to expose his corrupt fellow officers. De Laurentiis called the shots from behind the scenes.

Death Wish (1974)

Between Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver there came the original Death Wish, in which Charles Bronson goes after street scum with extreme prejudice, because his wife is dead and his daughter is traumatised, and because he's mad as hell and not taking it any more. The film spawned four sequels over a 20-year period.

King Kong (1976)

De Laurentiis embarked on some epic monkey business with his ill-fated remake of the 1933 classic, relocating Kong to the World Trade Centre and replacing scream queen Faye Wray with lissome Jessica Lange. The reviews were scathing, but the producer didn't care. King Kong went on to make back more than triple its budget.

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Perhaps we should also thank Dino for giving us Arnie. The producer cast the Austrian bodybuilder in what would prove to be his break-out role as Conan, a stern Cimerrian warrior culled from the pulp novels of Robert E Howard. Schwarzenegger, of course, went on to make Kindergarten Cop.

Dune (1984)

Hopes were high for the film version of Frank Herbert's epic fantasy, with David Lynch in the director's chair. But Dune crashed, burned and scalded all concerned. "This movie is a real mess," wrote Roger Ebert. "An incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time." For good measure, he also named it his worst movie of 1984 (and this in a year that also contained Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo).

Blue Velvet (1986)

Undeterred, De Laurentiis collaborated with Lynch again on Blue Velvet, a sunny tale of picket fences, severed ears and homicidal maniacs. On this occasion, the pair struck gold. Lynch's twisted little valentine is now recognised as one of the decade's abiding masterpieces.

Hannibal Rising (2007)

In later years, the producer ensured a cosy semi-retirement courtesy of his stake in the bestselling Thomas Harris books. He produced Manhunter in 1986, with Brian Cox in the Lecter role, and then returned to the well with Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002) and the 2007 prequel Hannibal Rising.